rather than pick out individual stocks to trade, it can often be worthwhile to trade the indices themselves, especially in times of high volatility.

for those so inclined, i attach below charts for FTSE and FTSE 250, though one might equally be tempted to trade Dow or S&P, which is significantly broader in its coverage, or even NASDAQ

for ease of reading, i have attached 1 year and 3 month charts in each instance

to those of my faith, we say holocaust!
if you know what is happening, then you know more than probably anyone else.
in seriousness, the concern is that europe really is in deep shit and that the german banks are going to have to own up to some masive debt problems.
certainly the rest of the world - f/e, south americ and india - are still thundering out of recession, as i guess is usa.
however, if europe suddenly stop consuming - but no one actually knows if that will even happen - then of course there are again major probs
it is always easy to imagine ghoulies and ghosties and worse, espcially when the markets suddenly go into freefall

cynic so the pundits prediction of 1000pts fall in the FTSE and oil at $65 is not far from the mark?

QE stopped, cash for clunkers stopped, inducements to buy a house drying up, inflation higher than expected, tax rises to come, and euro bank sector fears rise, no surprise the markets are lower.
2517

I predict a better day tomorrow.....

bb tomorrow is friday hope you are right!

perhaps not bhalifax you old bugger, tough 1000 is prob more applicable to dow, or at least i damn well hope so

Futures under 5000 now and DOW looking to slide below 10000 ,total bollocks ..

The predicted 10% correction from the DOW high of 11200 has now happened (10080) so onwards & upwards from now on hopefully! ;o)
Just hope Europe & the don't spoil the party.

london has gone soggy and new york even more so ..... very tiresome and, by the timing of it, i guess it's a knee-jerk reaction to osborne's cost-cutting measures .... with luck, the market will quickly appreciate that fast and decisive action is exactly what was required, though i suppose fears of the eurozone shambles will continue to haunt

"i guess it's a knee-jerk reaction to osborne's cost-cutting measures"

No. Osborne's cuts are a market positive, which are being outweighed by plenty of negatives such as a small Spanish bank being bailed out, the Spanish going on General Strike and Aussie mining tax.

not sure you're right, any more than i think i am! ..... anyway, we shall just have to live with what the market throws at us, and perhaps (probably) remember to duck quickly and/or to bank decent profits when presented

OK, I'm sure you know best. Tell me, what effect do you think the SNB might have on the markets if they sell their Euros this afternoon?

no idea .... and are the gnomes likely to do so and if so why?

"no idea"

Thought not.

"are the gnomes likely to do so"

That's the rumour which has been going around this morning.

"if so why?"

Diversification.

so why ask me then, or is it just that you like to be as silly as me?
perhaps the gnomes feel the urge to buy mushrooms-to-let

steady cynic....hilary's not a member of the witches cauldren..........

i know, and her style is not nearly as acerbic, but then nor are my responses!

I feel you are being tested, Cynic, even gently manipulated! ;o)

I thought that only happened in the red light distric harry.....

oops, miss read what you wrote harry.....